Toward a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: one billion citizens’ appeal

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Yasuyoshi Komizo

Secretary General of Mayors for Peace

Chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation

Despite everyone’s wish for peace, our world is filled with hatred and countless seeds of conflict. We, Mayors for Peace, are an international nonpartisan, non-governmental organization with members who profoundly empathize with the spirit of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and strive to establish a world free of nuclear weapons. Our work is based on the mayoral responsibility to protect the safety and welfare of our people. Mayors for Peace is currently composed of over 6,900 member cities from 161 countries and regions, representing over a billion citizens from around the world. And our numbers keep growing.

While nearly 16,000 nuclear warheads still exist in today’s world, declassified documents have revealed that the risks of inadvertent nuclear weapons use by accident or miscalculation are quite high. The world community should listen to the earnest message of the hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) that the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never be repeated and work for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Concurrently, we need to cultivate global mutual understanding to create a solid foundation for a peaceful society. We believe that, if people from different backgrounds can strive to work together to create common values, a basis is formed for a peaceful society where diversity is treasured and mutual cooperation is practiced.

Last year, the 70^th year after the atomic bombings, the UN General Assembly decided to establish an Open-Ended Working Group to identify effective measures for nuclear disarmament, including legal aspects. However, neither nuclear-weapon states nor nuclear umbrella states endorsed this resolution. Mayors for Peace, led by the Mayor of Hiroshima, believes that this golden opportunity should not be missed and that wide ranging states, including those possessing nuclear weapons and their umbrella states, shall engage in the deliberations of the Working Group. Thus, we have issued an Open Letter to encourage all the UN member states to participate constructively in this Working Group. (Read the Open Letter, here)

Please read this Open Letter written with our fervent wish to realize a peaceful world free of nuclear weapons. It is our sincere hope that the letter can help strengthen momentum in the international community to work together for our common good, transcending diverse political differences. We, Mayors for Peace, will also work harder, hand in hand with numerous civil society partners.

Contact information:

Mayors for Peace Secretariat

c/o Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation

1-5 Nakajima-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0811 Japan

Tel: +81-82-242-7821　　Fax: +81-82-242-7452

Email: mayorcon@pcf.city.hiroshima.jp

Homepage: http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.html